In a year that my top two
bands of the 2000’s (Last.fm stats to prove it) were both releasing new albums, it was easy for me to
assume that one of them would grab my top spot for 2011. And while both of
those albums were terrific, they were not the artists’ best works, and did not grip
me with the depth that my number one album did. For most of my life I have a
pretty good idea of my “album of the year” the first time I hear it. This year
was no exception; but when that thought first crossed my mind about this album I
thought it to be ridiculous because the album is so chaotic and unlike most of
the music I listen to. However, despite being chaotic, it is fantastic:
terrifying, beautiful, heavy, atmospheric, and perfectly-executed…
Top 20 Albums of 2011:
(Links are to the "best" way to purchase these albums as I discussed in my recent post; both digital and physical options are provided. As always on my blog: *=available on vinyl, **=I own on vinyl. 18 of the 20 albums below have vinyl releases, which is a record for all of my year end lists.)
Digital Vinyl
The Spirit That Guides Us was honestly barely on my radar through the mid-point of this year. Their debut album, The Sand, The Barrier, was released in 2001 in Europe and I don’t know if it ever got distribution in North America. I can’t even remember how I got my copy, and while the name of the band and the song titles are in the artwork for the CD, neither the name of the band members nor the name of the album is. I have had a hard time ever learning anything about the band (even if you do a Google search most of what little there is will be in Dutch), and most of what I did know until this year I learned during my only trip to Holland in 2003.
The Spirit That Guides Us released
another album, North and South, in
2004, and it did have U.S. digital distribution. I never got that into it
though; I thought it paled in comparison to the outstanding debut. I then lost
track of the band, and never heard We are
Under Reconstruction (2006) and Do
Not Shoot, Let Us Burn (2008) until this year.
During the summer I heard
the first song from Innocent Blood,
called Demons and Diamonds (you can buy it for any
price—including nothing—on Bandcamp).
It blew me away. I was soon trying to
figure out how I was going to purchase the full album, and I wanted a physical
copy. I was in the middle of a familiar dilemma—trying to figure out how to fit
independent music from Europe into my music budget. As usual, it was going to
cost me about $30 including shipping for a CD and $40 including shipping for a
vinyl record coming from the Netherlands (not to mention postage costs, music
costs much more in Europe than it does in North America).
I took matters into my own
hands, and found the email address for a member of The Spirit That Guides Us. I
explained how much I liked their band, only owned one of their now five albums,
and how I wanted to buy it all but couldn’t afford it. Well, this resulted in
frequent emails with Erik van Winkelhoff, one of only two original members of
the band. He cut me a ridiculous deal, and sent me the entire The Spirit That
Guides Us discography; I got half a dozen CD’s, a couple of vinyl records, and
a t-shirt.
I never expected to love Innocent Blood so much. Now that I am
able to listen to every song The Spirit That Guides Us has ever recorded, you
really never know what you are going to get. Stylistically they are all over
the map, and while I mostly enjoy every style they play—melodic rock, metal,
hardcore—the quality also varies. This is due to the fact that the band is
really more of a collective, with rotating members. Based on what I can tell,
they have had at least 12 members over the course of the decade. Well, their
line-up has finally meshed, and they have never been more on top of their game.
Without a doubt, this is
the best album The Spirit That Guides Us has ever recorded; however, it is also
easily their most inaccessible. I would guess that less than one percent of my
readers would give it a chance. As usual, the genre is unclassifiable. It is
rock, but with frequent hardcore breakdowns (yes, screaming). What makes this
album different are the shoegaze elements, which seems ridiculous in concept.
The My Bloody Valentine influence is strong, which would make one think it is
forced. However, it works and seems perfectly organic. And despite how noisy
and chaotic this album is, it has beautiful melodies. Some are obvious, and
some take multiple listens to notice.
Most of the rest of the
content on my year-end list will be quotes from reviews that I have found all
over the web, and that is how I am going to end this one. This is a summary of
a 2-star (out of 5) review I found on the Dutch website NU.NL, which I can only read using
Google language tools. You would think a 2-star review would be negative, but
they actually describe the album perfectly:
The title is hard to digest… like the music on this
disc. You cannot say that this group chooses the easy way. Not only because it
is rough rock music combined with a spiritual message, but more specifically
because they are not simple songs to put together. Harsh screams and dissonant
guitar work are accompanied by beautiful crystal pieces recalling My Bloody
Valentine. Original recipe for sure, but it is questionable whether many people
will find the result enjoyable. Songs like Rip Out Your Heart and Remember,
however, have an undeniable beauty. It is a particularly bizarre sequence of
regularly contrasting passages that makes this album quite tight.
If you live in Europe, I
highly recommend you buy The Spirit That Guides Us’ CDs and vinyl straight from the band. But if you are like me and live in another part of the
world, now ALL of their albums are on Amazon for less than $9.
Here is how I would rank their full lengths:
1. Innocent Blood
2. The Sand, The Barrier
3. We Are Under Reconstruction
4. North and South
5. Don’t Shoot, Let Us Burn
1. Innocent Blood
2. The Sand, The Barrier
3. We Are Under Reconstruction
4. North and South
5. Don’t Shoot, Let Us Burn
Digital Vinyl (OOP)
It
is well-known that Thrice is my favorite band of the last decade. I listen to
them weekly, almost daily, and no other artist comes close. That said, my
expectations for this, and every Thrice release, are through the roof. And I
hate to say it, but the band let me down a little. Major/Minor is great—terrific songwriting, outstanding
musicianship—but it is missing what I love so much about Thrice:
experimentation. Arguably this is the most straight-forward album the band has
ever released. It is a great rock record, but nothing about it surprised me.
Some of Dustin’s best lyrics, and all the guitars are awesome; it sort of
reminds me of 90’s Pearl Jam. The only reason I mention that comparison is
because it seems silly to say.
Ryan
Reed for Pop Matters:
Gone are the electronic ghosts that pulsed through Alchemy, vanished are the dreamy
guitars and ambience that defined their last effort, 2009’s Beggars. Much of Major/Minor finds the band
squarely in full-on, stripped-down riff-rock territory, downplaying
experimentation in favor of immediate, throat-grabbing structures. Opener
“Yellow Belly” wastes no time showing off their newly dusted-off wardrobe,
flaunting a raunchy, detuned guitar figure, and Riley Breckenridge’s bass
pedal-heavy drum kit… For every clunky riff, there’s a well-rounded track that
demonstrates the power of which these guys are truly capable. As nice as it is
to hear them back with much-needed intensity, Thrice almost always sound best
when it’s dissecting a track from the inside out: “Cataracts” is downright
phenomenal, utilizing a wicked guitar/bass interplay that perfectly suits the
raw production, while “Words in the Water” rides a Modest Mouse-esque guitar
landscape and Breckenridge’s muscular, driving snare rolls, building to a
lighter-waver chorus with a biting melody.
Digital Vinyl
This is the album I had been hoping would be the follow-up to Transatlanticism. Plans was fine, Narrow Stairs was bad, and Codes and Keys is finally something different and optimistic from the band. I can’t write a review about it without mentioning Zooey Deschanel, as she is clearly the inspiration for most of these lyrics. When it was announced last month that she and Ben Gibbard divorced, it definitely took the fun out of songs like “Monday Morning”. These are some of the only “happy” songs Gibbard has written, and now it it doubtful there will be more anytime soon.
Matt
McKechnie for And the Hits Just Keep On Comin’: I’ve read the
reviews on Codes and Keys and for the most part, it seemed like the public were
sort of ‘enh’ in their response to this record—but I think that’s because it’s
an album with layers that takes some precise digging and a bit of guesswork. In
this day and age of spoon-fed multimedia, DCFC has put out a record that truly
makes the listener sick an ear to the speaker for a closer review and get lost
in the cavalcade of sound.
Digital Vinyl
When I first heard this album I thought, “People are going to love this.” Unfortunately, I also thought, “Man, I miss the simplicity of the last album.” Re-Arrange Us is my favorite Mates of State album and was my #1 of 2008. It was quite a departure for the band at the time, dropping the organ and keyboards for songs built on piano. Mountaintops is a return to form in a way, but they have also greatly expanded their sound; this is by far their most produced work, with endless layers of diverse instrumentation.
Adam
Kivel for Consequence of Sound: Way back in 2000
(that phrase seems so wrong), the debut disc from Mates of State, My Solo Project, was much
lauded for its gleeful, rough-around-the-edges take on indie pop. The married
duo of Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel propelled themselves forward on
rabbit-thump drumming, gleaming keyboards, arching vocal harmonies, and,
probably, a pretty decent amount of sugar. Their pop hooks were readily
apparent, but there was a charming messiness about the thing, a sincerity that
shone through in the fact that this wasn’t lo-fi for effect, that these were
two musicians finding their own place, their own sound, and their own
potential. Since then, their stock has considerably risen, and with each
successive album, those rough edges have been sanded down, little by little.
But rather than losing any authenticity, the duo have kept their strengths, all
while bolstering their sound with new instrumental flourishes and stronger
songwriting to couch those still-powerful hooks.
Digital (Free)
The first time I listened, I really didn’t
like the first song on this album. It is fine, but it reminds me of Ray
LaMontagne, and that is not a good thing. Thankfully, I stuck with it and was
richly rewarded. Until this year I had never heard of Josh Garrels, although he
is a prolific singer-songwriter. Thankfully he decided to give away his new
album for free, and we are all better off. The only thing stranger than me
ranking The Spirit That Guides Us #1 is me ranking this album at all. I can’t
emphasize enough how spectacular this album is. Read the story here.
Josh Hurst for Stereo Subversion: Garrels’
is a prophetic voice, then, and he delivers his songs—glad tidings and sad laments
in equal measure—not as dogma, but as the convictions of one who knows all too
well how lost he is apart from the hand of Love. His latest record is a
particularly weighty thing—but then, of course it is. The name of it is Love & War & The Sea In
Between, and, at 18 songs, Garrels says it's inspired by the sheer
scale and thematic complexity of the great Russian novels. He is, obviously,
cruising for a major letdown. One could criticize this work for being bloated,
overlong, and self-serious, and they wouldn’t be wrong, but I’ll be damned if
it isn’t a mighty whallop of a record, one that transcends its own implicit
pomposity to become something truly rousing, deeply human and aching for the
Holy… Obviously, it is a very big record, tackling big ideas and
presenting them as a series of interlocking ideas, and musically, the thing is
a little all over the place.
Digital CD (Box set)
In October of 2010 Sleeping at Last (who is
now only Ryan O’Neal) embarked on a 12-month EP project in which they would
release 3 songs a month. After the first three EP’s, I ranked them as my #1 EP
of 2010. Well, after 9 EP’s in 2011, and 36 total songs, it is not an EP; it is
3 LPs. I have been with this band since the beginning, and while I preferred
them when they rocked a little more, the songwriting is better than it has ever
been.
Michael Schiele for Stereo Subversion: The
project has proved fascinating… The music itself is full of sweeping
crescendos, strings and piano. Sleeping At Last has never been afraid of great
swells of emotion or romantic interludes, but the absence of a drummer is
noticeable on these songs. Not to say that these tracks miss out on a sense of
rhythm (tracks like “Next To Me” bristle with a banjo pop), but the EPs hold
ample amounts of intimacy and experimentation. Sleeping At Last benefit from
the constraints of the small format, allowing the theatrics and atmospherics
soar without risking overindulgence.
Digital Vinyl
Despite
two strong LP’s under their belt, I had pretty much given up on this band after
seeing them play live last year in Atlanta, their hometown. I have been to
hundreds (if not thousands) of shows in my life, and it was one of the worst.
I’ll save you the details, but it was enough to stop listening to Manchester
Orchestra. Then they released Simple Math.
I found the title track single irresistible, and the album as a whole blew me
away. I did not think the band was capable of something this good. The Built to
Spill influence is heavy, and that is a very good thing, especially since it
was not evident at all on the first two albums.
Chad
Grischow for IGN: At first glance, or at least upon hearing the lead
single, Atlanta's Manchester Orchestra seems to have completely reinvented
themselves on their latest album. Adding strings to the mix is an initial shock
to the system, but the more refined sound feels like a natural evolution on
their brilliant third album. Rest assured, Andy Hull and crew are still willing
and able to kick you in the chest with burly guitar-driven rock and rip your
heart out with soul-baring lyrics… The passionate wailing vocals and
southern-tinged guitar swagger of thrashing "April Fool" fits well
alongside the velvety layers of beautiful "Pale Black Eye", with a
swirling vortex of angst gradually building in the hovering guitars and patient
strings. Anyone that thinks this is a giant departure has not been paying
attention to the Ying-Yang approach of fire and beauty that has balanced each
of their previous two albums. Rather, this is the perfection of that balanced
approach, fueled by the most mature songwriting of their career.
Digital Vinyl
I
am pretty sure I am in the minority among Eisley fans, but Combinations is by far my favorite album of theirs, even after the
release of this one. Combinations is
the most diverse instrumentally, and has the most eclectic songs. The Valley is Eisley rocking at its
hardest without giving up the fantastic three-part female vocal harmonies. The
album as a whole leaves me unsatisfied; but that is OK because with Eisley the
best is yet to come.
Kiel Hauck for Pop Matters: As
unfortunate as the circumstances were that led to the writing of The Valley, one can only surmise that
they played a large role in molding this band into a unit that has now
delivered its best work to date… “The Valley” embodies everything that fans of
Eisley’s past work have come to love—amazing and almost angelic like harmonies
from the girls, simple yet extremely well placed instrumentation, and a tone
that perfectly captures the heart behind their music… When we hear something
born of suffering and adversity, we’re moved because it’s honest. It’s real. It
means something. This is a large part of what makes The Valley so special. Not
everyone has felt the pain of a divorce, but each of us have known valleys in
our own lives and the pain, struggle and hope that ensued in our climb to the
other side. Eisley has captured this experience brilliantly and crafted an
album whose missteps are so few and far between that they simply add to its
character as a whole. The Valley is
a story that had to be told and now begs to be heard again and again.
Digital Vinyl
I only discovered this album last month. The single “Losers” got my attention, and I was surprised how different the rest of the album is. Sounds very early-80’s, yet with completely organic instrumentation. The Fleetwood Mac comparison is spot-on. Still digesting it, so don’t have many thoughts yet.
Wyndham
Wyeth for Paste Magazine:
The band, made up of brother/sister duo Ethan and
Barbara Gruska, writes simple songs about common themes like being in love,
loneliness and feeling like an outcast. But it works. The most ear-pleasing
quality of the band is the way their DNA-sharing vocal
cords are able to vibrate perfectly together, creating full, textured harmonies
that seem to rise above the instrumentation while flowing along it… While the
band has drawn many comparisons to Fleetwood Mac and other pop-rock bands of
the ‘70s, it’s the soft poetry of Simon & Garfunkel and the pop sensibility
of The Beatles that seem to have had the biggest influence… The debut LP is a fun
album full of breezy melodies straight from the highways of California.
Digital Vinyl
It
is pretty weird for a band to “take a break” for over a dozen years, but that
is what they did. Impressively, they are better now (yet much different) than
they were when they started. Probably the most complex folk music out there…
Josh
Langhoff for Pop Matters:
…Their melodies sound even more natural
floating over the top of weird roiling meters like 9/8 or 7/8 or whatever. They
feel less composed, more like they’re drifting in from whatever ether produced
this eternal music. Alternately, they feel like boats adrift on the irregular
pulse of the ocean, which makes some sense—Delopoulos really likes singing
about the ocean. He wants to live on a boat and sail away with his children,
maybe to the Greek island of Santorini. Don’t forget to write! Thanks to the
band and maybe Mr. Froom, these songs are constant wellsprings of motion and
life, with abrupt dynamic shifts and subtle “diddidit dit dit” background
vocals, even some gang shouts. Back on the band’s ‘98 hit “Basic Instructions”,
such stuff sounded like it was tacked on to a message song. Now everything is
integral to everything else—these new songs writhe around like organisms.
11. Over the Rhine- The Long Surrender* Digital Vinyl
Over the Rhine’s last album, the Trumpet Child, was a huge disappointment. It was honestly the first Over the Rhine album since I had discovered them in 1997 that I didn’t like; the jazz overtones are not my style. I saw them in concert on that tour, and when they played nothing from Good Dog Bad Dog, I very much feared for the future of the band (this would be like U2 not playing any songs from The Joshua Tree in concert). Thankfully the band went back to the drawing board, raised a lot of money through their fan-base to record with Joe Henry, and released The Long Surrender in December 2010 (I actually bought it for my wife for Christmas last year). The official release date was in early 2011, and this review echoes my sentiments perfectly…
Josh Hurst for The Hurst Review: Certainly, it is the best-sounding Over the Rhine album, something that should come as a surprise to absolutely no one; the album marks their first collaboration with Joe Henry, a record producer whose work always favors warmth, intimacy, and simplicity… For someone who has no history with this band to speak of, Henry understands what makes for a great Over the Rhine album with remarkable clarity, and he has aided them in creating just that– not a departure so much as an album that embraces the band’s essential Over the Rhine-ness and therefore feels, immediately, like their most essential work… It is a deepening of the sound of albums like Good Dog Bad Dog and Ohio, albums that chase the elusive spirit of Americana without seeming to care so very much about whether they actually catch it; the fun, it seems, is in the pursuit. Even so, this is their most seamless and integrative album, more graceful than anything they’ve done in its elegant conjuring of country, folk, gospel, and jazz.
Digital Vinyl
It took me almost 10 years to truly appreciate Mogwai; for the longest time rock music without vocals really didn’t do a whole lot for me. Thanks to my brother, I actually heard them at their inception. Well, once I “got” them I have fallen in love. This is potentially my favorite Mogwai album.
Brice
Ezell for Pop Matters: If we judged albums based on titles alone, Hardcore
Will Never Die, But You Will would
win the prize of 2011 with nary a hint of contest. It’s in equal measures
darkly hilarious, insightful, and, in a peculiar way, career-defining for this
influential Scottish band. After dropping a groundbreaking record in 1997’s Young
Team, critical mass has generally been of the opinion that the band
hasn’t been able to live up to the high standard they set for themselves. This
record ought to dispel any such notion. Everything that makes Mogwai great are
present here: the rock (“San Pedro”), the imposing, powerful crescendos
(“You’re Lionel Ritchie”), and the incredibly beautiful (“Death Rays”, one of
the band’s finest tracks to date). If the album title is true, and I’d like to
think it is, we all will die someday. Hopefully though, the hardcore music of
Mogwai never will.
Digital Vinyl
In the early 2000’s, Blindside was probably my favorite heavy band. I loved the diversity of 2004’s About a Burning Fire, but then they dropped off the map. The actually released another album the following year, but The Great Depression lacked all the energy of their previous work. 2007 brought an average EP, and then no news at all for probably 3 years. Blindside returned with a bang, and With Shivering Hearts We Wait picks right up where they were in 2004 but with all kinds of interesting new twists.
Luke
for Kill Your Stereo: The record begins with its strongest
track, There Must Be
Something In The Water, a grating rock riff
that tussles with frontman Christian
Lindskog’s seamless
changes between clean and dirty vocals. The theme of this track and its
follower, My Heart Escapes,
combines heavy tones with beautiful orchestral arrangements giving the band a
hum of epic proportions… The mood shifts for the first single Monster On The Radio, which features a slightly new take on the group’s
sound. The band have always progressed and tweaked themselves with every
release and with this track, the programmed beat and catchy/dance like chorus
not only makes the song an obvious single, but also gives fans something new… Another
stand out is the melodic, Bloodstained
Hollywood Ending, a hook heavy rocker
that sounds like all of the best parts of Blindside over the years combined.
This leads brilliantly into the gloomy Our Love Saves Us and one of the heaviest songs on the record, Bring Out Your Dead.
Nothing really that new from the band, but they are so good at what they do. This isn’t taking anything away from the music, but the highlight of the album is by far the artwork and packaging.
Joe
Tangari for Pitchfork: So whether or not you dive into Take Care will largely depend on your appetite
for loud/soft instrumental post-rock. If your appetite for it is boundless, you
will be very pleased by this album, and probably also its elaborate artwork,
which can be folded several ways to make the interior or exterior of a
building. At its best, Take Care is ruled by drummer Chris Hrasky. The
guitars tend to hang on particular figures or throw up an e-bowed haze, and
Hrasky is the one who can cut through that… One could argue that the music here
is predictable and even a bit old-hat. We've lived with this sound for well
over a decade now, and we have classics to compare it to, including Explosions
in the Sky's own work. And that argument holds some water. But the simple fact
is that Explosions in the Sky are very good at this particular thing, and it
seems as though no matter how many crescendos and diminuendos they play, there
remains a certain amount of cathartic power to their music.
Digital Vinyl
I’ve been an R.E.M. fan for almost 25 years, and I am probably one of the few people on the planet that thinks they are actually much better than U2. I would argue they are the greatest American rock band, EVER. 2008 brought Accelerate, which was a supposed return-to-form, with short, fast rock songs. While it was fun, and did sort of remind us of what R.E.M. sounded like when they started out, it was too forced. Collapse Into Now is much more natural and much better, and as R.E.M. called it quits this year, it is a perfect ending to an amazing career.
Rob
Sheffield for Rolling Stone:
Except instead of scruffy young bohemians hustling to make it, it's a
portrait of full-grown artists who reached the top long ago but decided to
stick together and ride out the decades. You can hear a lot of shared history
in the music, but you can also hear conflict, confusion, doubt — exactly the
kind of recipe that R.E.M. thrive on… Collapse Into Now is the first truly messy album R.E.M.
have made in 10 years, since their underrated 2001 gem, Reveal… Buck shines on Collapse, whether he's going
for psychedelic buzz ("Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando and I") or power-chord
thump ("Mine Smell Like Honey")… It's been 30 years since these
Georgia boys released their debut indie single, "Radio Free
Europe"/"Sitting Still," which basically invented everything
halfway interesting that guitar bands have done ever since. They long ago
passed the point where they're beloved just for continuing to exist.
Digital Vinyl
I am a BIG Fountains of Wayne fan, and honestly I have not listened to this album enough. I thought their last album, Traffic and Weather, was far too overproduced, and the more acoustic sounds here remind me of my favorite Fountains of Wayne album, Welcome Interstate Managers.
Jody Rosen for Rolling Stone: For 15 years, Fountains of Wayne have been rock's sharpest storytellers, chronicling the dreams and setbacks of middle-class types with heartbreaking precision and crunchy guitar hooks. Their fifth LP is rootsier than usual, but the characters are as vivid as ever. There's the boozer looking for love on an Amtrak ("Acela"); the woman reliving teenage nightmares at her parents' country house ("The Summer Place"); the hapless hipster entrepreneurs in "Richie and Ruben." The songs are filled with jokes - but the punch lines often turn into epiphanies. And FoW nail the boredom of the touring life: "In between the stops at the Cracker Barrel/And 40 movies with Will Ferrell/I need some way to occupy my time."
Digital Vinyl
Coldplay is the most popular rock band in the world right now, and this is clearly not their best album. However, it is good, and more importantly, it’s fun. Probably the poppiest the band has ever been, and it works. I feel ashamed to admit it, but my favorite song on the album is a duet with Rihanna.
Ian
Cohen for Pitchfork: A new Coldplay album is the sort of thing that's used as a health check
for the record industry, and the band is very much aware that they could just
release "a new Coldplay album" that would leave everyone involved
satisfied-- this is essentially what happened on 2005's X&Y, their fastest seller and also their weakest LP
according to many… While Coldplay will always be more enjoyable than
groundbreaking and their artistic advances seen as smart troubleshooting than
divine intervention, Mylo Xyloto works because the band once again
manages to sound like Coldplay without sounding like any of their previous LPs,
maintaining their stadium-spanning grandeur while subtly challenging
preconceptions… It's all about how they unabashedly flirt with contemporary
R&B production, cranking the drums way up in the mix and the massing the
vocals on the chorus to overwhelming, Pavlovian effect. They don't want to
completely do away with Coldplay qua Coldplay-- they're still four
normal-looking guys who introduced themselves with frail post-The Bends Britrock like "Yellow" and "Trouble". But they continually ask, why limit
themselves to that?
Digital Vinyl
It’s
Radiohead.
Mark
Ptylik for Pitchfork: In this more rhythmic first half of the album, electronic percussion
figures in heavily as usual, but also with heightened emphasis on drummer Phil
Selway's uneven time signatures. The previously well-rounded band dynamic,
meanwhile, feels like it's been reduced to a miniaturized version of itself.
This isn't the band that ripped through "Bodysnatchers"; these guys
play with a precise, almost scientific restraint that suits the twitchy anxiety
of these songs well… Things open up on the softer, dreamier second side, as
rhythms recede and more traditional song structures take over. "Lotus Flower", the
lead single presumably for having a chorus and not being a ballad, finds Yorke
delivering a series of slippery hooks in slinky falsetto mode. Album highlights
"Codex" and "Give Up the Ghost" follow, the former a
narcotized cousin to "Pyramid Song" that features woozily flanged
piano chords, long, plaintive horn trills, and Yorke at his most evocative; the
latter an acoustic, guitar-led call-and-response that finds him piling
falsettos into a gorgeously ramshackle wall of harmony. Last is "Separator",
a clear-eyed, mid-tempo closer that mixes 1990s–era Radiohead with a touch of
Neil Young-inspired guitar work and ends on a sweet and easy note that's miles
away from the complicated clatter it began with.
Digital Vinyl
In
2001, Thursday released Full Collapse,
an album I loved. I saw them play twice that year, and they were two of the
best and high-energy concerts I have ever attended. The next album bored me,
and album after album the band just seemed to go downhill. I had stopped paying
attention, and then somehow I heard a track from No Devolucion. It startled me, and it was enough for me to order
the vinyl. The album is awesome, and has made the band relevant again. It
sounds nothing like Full Collapse, but what it does share with that decade-old
release is the originality.
Jason
Heller for the Onion’s A.V. Club: Written and recorded in a matter of days with Dave Fridmann, a producer
better known for sweeping, expansive indie rock, the album boasts murky puddles
of synthesizer, jagged drums, and a sheen of white static that subverts almost
every role each instrument is expected to play. Frontman Geoff Rickly swimming
along in them; his parables of loss and devotion—from the desolate matrimonial
tableau of “Empty Glass” to the aching infatuation of “Magnets Caught In A
Metal Heart”—trawl the depths of a heart that’s never been far from the sleeve.
As raw yet coldly deliberate as self-surgery, No
Devolución isn’t a return to form for Thursday;
it’s a searing, scarring reinvention.
Digital Vinyl
I have been aware of Conor Oberst since he started
recording music, but I have never really been a big fan. I have liked most
every song I have ever heard of his, but never enough to truly get into his
music. This is the release I have always wanted him to make; a full-fledge rock
album.
Ryan
Reed for Paste Magazine:
It sounds like Oberst, in particular, needed
rejuvenation. His solo and Monsters of Folk tracks were all of high quality,
but he failed to surprise, laying out a number of fairly traditional, folky
tracks that didn’t embrace his trademark eclecticism. On Key…the instrumentation is raw and electric—guitars
and synths battling it out over Walcott’s always inventive drumming. On early
highlight “Jejune Stars,” there’s even a punk-inflected breakdown, complete
with minor-chord pummeling and a double-bass pedal onslaught. From a purely
sonic standpoint, Bright Eyes sound like they’re actually having fun—which just
might be a first.
Top 5 EPs
of 2011:
1. Appleseed Cast- Middle States** Digital Vinyl
2. Derek Webb and Sandra McCracken- Tennessee Digital CD
3. Pinback- Information Retrieved Parts A and B** Vinyl (Vinyl only, two 7" records)
4. Sarah Jaffe- The Way a Sound Leaves a Room Digital CD/DVD
5. The Hawk in Paris- His + Hers Digital
2. Derek Webb and Sandra McCracken- Tennessee Digital CD
3. Pinback- Information Retrieved Parts A and B** Vinyl (Vinyl only, two 7" records)
4. Sarah Jaffe- The Way a Sound Leaves a Room Digital CD/DVD
5. The Hawk in Paris- His + Hers Digital
Top 5 albums the dozens of year-end lists I read told me (or reminded me) I need to buy (and probably will soon):
1. The Decemberists- The King Is Dead* Digital Vinyl (bought yesterday, love it after three listens)
2. Bon Iver- s/t* Digital Vinyl
3. Foster the People- Torches* Digital Vinyl
4. Marketa Irglova- Anar Digital CD
5. St. Vincent- Strange Mercy* Digital Vinyl
1. The Decemberists- The King Is Dead* Digital Vinyl (bought yesterday, love it after three listens)
2. Bon Iver- s/t* Digital Vinyl
3. Foster the People- Torches* Digital Vinyl
4. Marketa Irglova- Anar Digital CD
5. St. Vincent- Strange Mercy* Digital Vinyl
Most disappointing album of the year:
Swarm of Bats- There is No Tomorrow Digital Brandtson is one of my favorite bands of all time, and this is the exact same line-up minus drummer/vocalist Jared Jolley. It is very obvious that with the break-up of Brandtson the remaining members were trying to do something drastically different. They succeeded, and it is terrible. Instrumentally at times it is mildly interesting, but it seems as if the vocals were recorded in one take and intentionally recorded without thought or melody. I don't even know how to describe it, so go listen to it yourself at Bandcamp (streams for free and you can buy it for any price). The album cover, which I love, is the best part about the album.
